A US national park with a difference:
it's a 40-mile (63-km) stretch of Cape
Cod seashore—beach,
dunes, marsh, forest, and glacial ponds—stretching
from Eastham and
Nauset Beach to Provincetown
(map).

The US National Park Service has set up four developed
areas for visitors in the 44,600 acres
(18,048 hectares) of land set aside
for the park in 1961.

Nauset Area

The Salt Pond Visitor Center
at Eastham on US 6 has
interpretive exhibits, nature trails, an evening
program,
rest rooms, picnic areas, and Coast
Guard Beach and Nauset
Light Beach, open for
swimming.

Several bicycle and bridle
trails lead from the Visitor Center to the
beaches through the pretty woods, marshes, and
dunes.

Be sure to enter the Visitor
Center building and take in the picture-postcard
view of Salt Pond, below.

Marconi Station Area

The Seashore's headquarters is here
near Wellfleet,
and there's also an interpretive
shelter and nature
trail at the
site of Marconi's
wireless station, the
first in the United States. Marconi
Beach is open for swimming.
The Great
Island
Trail is in a separate area southwest
of the town of Wellfleet.

Pilgrim Heights Area

Between North Truro and Provincetown,
this area includes an interpretive
shelter dealing
with the Pilgrims and
the Indians, nature trails, a picnic
area, and,
nearby, Head
of the Meadow Beach, open
for swimming.

You'll also see signs
pointing the way to Highland
Light, with
its picturesque
lighthouse and
ocean observation
point. On a nearby hill are several
radar installations which look surprisingly
like enormous
golf
balls. And then there's a golf
course, right
below.

Province Lands Area

A Visitor Center outside Provincetown on Race Point Road provides
information and exhibits dealing with
the Seashore and its natural treasures,
with a schedule of programs at the
amphitheater in the evening.

Two
beaches, a picnic area,
a nature trail, and a bicycle
trail are here as well. Park
at Race Point or Herring Cove.